Maybe it’s true, after all. There really was a lot of deadwood at the city’s much-maligned Board of Elections. Or perhaps all that pressure massaging the balky new electronic machines was too much. Or the thousands of openings for $200-a-day election inspectors on Election Days just happen to attract a high number of older retirees.
Whatever the reason, a disproportionately large number of election workers have died in the last two years, at least compared with other municipal employees. (The Board of Elections was the subject of a 70-page report issued on Monday by the city’s Department of Investigation that highlighted deficiencies, including cases of nepotism, and recommended improvements in training and hiring, among other steps.)
In recent weeks, the City Record, the official municipal journal, has added an unusual category - deceased â€" to its daily list of personnel changes, which typically details appointments, resignations and promotions.
Historically, political bosses have been accused of casting phantom ballots by “voting the cemetery.†There are fewer known cases of zombie election inspectors, though.
A board spokeswoman, Valerie Vazquez, insists that all the inspectors listed in the City Record as deceased were, indeed, once alive and that none got paid for poll watching after he or she died.
What happened, she said, was that in 2010, the Internal Revenue Service determined that per diem employees - such as Election Day inspectors â€" could not be considered independent contractors. So more than 60,000 names, or about two years’ worth of inspectors, were fed into the city’s Automated Personnel System computers. When their names were finally matched with their Social Security numbers, it turned out that 843 had died, she said.
“They weren’t on the payroll; they were only paid if they worked on Election Day,†Ms. Vazquez said. “It wasn’t a question of their being deceased and still getting paid.â€
